SOFTWARE ENGINEER — PYTHON | 4 POSITIONS | NORTHERN HUBS, 1 DAY A WEEK | £500 per day inside IR35 — BPSS, with SC eligibility
THE ROLE
Four engineers, on the same requirement, building a service that members of the public will actually use.
It is Python on the back end with Flask and FastAPI, MongoDB underneath, JSON APIs between. Containerised with Docker, running on Linux, delivered through Git-based pipelines. Modern Python throughout rather than something inherited from 2014.
You pick the hub. Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield or Blackpool, 1/2 days a week on site and the rest from home. Four positions at once usually means one of two things. Either a team is being built rather than a gap filled, or something is about to get a lot busier. Here it is both.
YOU WILL
- Build and maintain production Python services using Flask and FastAPI
- Design and consume JSON APIs, with MongoDB as the document store
- Containerise with Docker and deploy onto Linux
- Work in a Git-based CI/CD workflow with the rest of the engineering team
- Contribute to the DevOps side rather than throwing work over a wall
- Build accessible front-end components where the service needs them
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
- Production Python with Flask or FastAPI, not scripting
- You have built custom applications for a UK public sector organisation
- MongoDB or another document database in production
- Docker and Linux, day to day
- Git-based CI/CD as a normal way of working
- Able to work 2 days per week at one of the northern hubs
- Able to pass a BPSS check, and be eligible for SC if it is later required
ADVANTAGEOUS
- DWP experience
- The GOV.UK Design System on a real service
- A service you took through a GDS assessment
- Accessibility work to WCAG standards
WHY THIS ONE
You choose where you sit. Five hubs across the north, two days a week, three from wherever you are. Government contracts usually name one city and expect you to solve the rest yourself.
BPSS, not SC. Most government engineering contracts sit behind a clearance gate that takes months and shuts out people who have never held one. This one does not.
Four positions, and the client has said openly that it could grow considerably. Getting in at the start of something is worth more than joining it later. And the work is visible. Public services are used by people who did not choose to use them and cannot go elsewhere, which is a better test of whether you built it properly than most commercial work will ever give you.
THE DETAILS
Location: Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield or Blackpool — 1/2 days per week on site, the rest remote
Rate: £500 per day inside IR35
Clearance: BPSS required. You must also be SC eligible
Positions: 4